DoT moves SC against Delhi HC order

Stung by Delhi High Court's verdict that slammed the Department of Telcom for 'arbitrarily' advancing the cut-off date for release of 2G spectrum to new telecom operators,the government has challenged the order before the Supreme Court.

Stung by Delhi High Court’s verdict that slammed the Department of Telcom for ‘arbitrarily’ advancing the cut-off date for release of 2G spectrum to new telecom operators,the government has challenged the order before the Supreme Court.

The DoT filed a Special Leave Petition (SLP) in the apex court last week saying all the rules and regulations were followed while allocating licences for 2G spectrum to new mobile operators.

One of the new telecom operator S Tel had approached the Delhi Court challenging DoT’s decision to advance the cut-off date due to which Chennai-based C Sivasankaram led S Tel was denied licences in 16 circles.

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Telecom Minister A Raja has come under severe criticism for his decision to advance the cut-off date with some quarter alleging that it was done to favour only a handful of companies.

Companies,including Unitech,Swan Telecom,Loop,Datacom,Shyam-Sistema and S Tel among others were given licences in January 2008 followed by 2G spectrum at a cost of Rs 1,658 crore for pan-India operations.

The DoT has stood its ground that no wrong has been done and keeping in mind the availability of spectrum the decision was taken.

A division bench headed by Chief Justice A P Shah had said there was no “rational” in DoT’s decision to advance the deadline from October 1,2007,to September 25,2007.

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